Article published in the Manhattan/Riley County Preservation Alliance Newsletter 30:1, (February 2024)

https://www.preservemanhattan.org/uploads/8/0/7/7/8077603/february_2024_newsletter.pdf

I was invited to write an historical and advocacy-oriented article about the stunning Commerce Bank (originally Union National Bank and Trust) for the bimonthly Manhattan/Riley Country Preservation Alliance Newsletter. Published in February 2024, this essay focuses on arguably the most sophisticated and elegant modernist building in Manhattan, Kansas. For many years, the bank had attempted to sell the property. Ultimately a scheme was hatched to demolish Commerce and replace with a pretty typical 4-story residential building with a couple retail spaces (one to be occupied by Commerce!).

After demolition, I hear that the funding has fallen through (despite securing $2 million in taxpayer funds and tax breaks) and the property may be for sale for a dollar… I once hoped this article would elicit more attention to the building, but now one may now hope that stupid demolitions of important buildings in the city’s architectural legacy, to be replaced by a patch of grass or dirt, will eventually be reconsidered.